Vietnam is acquiring huge quantities of illegally logged timber from neighboring Laos and turning it into furniture for consumers in the United States and Europe, an environmental group said Wednesday.

"Vietnam's booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation" in Laos, Julian Newman of the Britain-based Environmental Investigation Agency said at a news conference.

The group showed a video of fleets of trucks laden with logs crossing the border into Vietnam from Laos, which has banned the export of logs and sawn timber.

Every year, an estimated 17.6 million cubic feet of logs are smuggled across the border after false documents are produced and bribes paid, the group said.

The video included Vietnamese businessmen admitting that logs at their factories came from Laos in violation of the country's laws and were processed into furniture for export.

A huge pile of logs from Laos was shown in the Vietnamese port of Vinh, ready for sale.

Newman said businesses in Thailand are also buying illegally cut timber from Laos, which has some of the last great forests in mainland Southeast Asia.

"The cost of such unfettered greed is borne by poor rural communities in Laos who are dependent on the forests for their traditional livelihoods," Newman said.

Vietnamese and Thai officials were not immediately available for comment. The governments of both countries have in the past acknowledged the illegal trafficking of timber from Laos, although the scope of the trade has not previously been clear.

"The ultimate responsibility for this dire state of affairs rests with the consumer markets which import wood products made from stolen timber," Newman said.

Faith Doherty, another EIA staffer, said draft laws now before the U.S. Congress would curb such imports. She said the European Union was taking steps to certify furniture and other forest products as having come from legally procured timber.

An EIA report also released Wednesday noted that Vietnam has taken steps since the 1990s to conserve its own forests while at the same time expanding wooden furniture production, much of it with illegal timber.

Furniture exports from Vietnam totaled $2.4 billion last year, a tenfold increase since 2000. According to the Vietnamese government, 39 percent of the exports in 2006 went to the United States, 14 percent to Japan, 7 percent to Britain and 4 percent each to France and Germany.

"The plundering of Laos' forests involves high-level corruption and bribery and it is not just Vietnam which is exploiting its neighbor.

Thai and Singapore traders are also cashing in," the report said. Posing as investors, EIA staffers met one Thai businessman who bragged of paying bribes to senior Lao military officials to secure timber potentially worth $500 million, the group said.

Press Release: 19 March 2008

VIETNAM: HOW THE COUNTRY HAS BECOME A HUB FOR THE REGION'S ILLEGAL TIMBER TRADE.

Vietnam is operating as a centre for processing huge quantities of unlawfully-logged timber from across Indochina, threatening some of the last intact forests in the region, a major new report reveals.

Undercover investigations by the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Indonesian NGO Telapak have revealed how Vietnam’s booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation throughout the Mekong river region.

Field investigations in Vietnam and neighbouring Laos, including secret filming and undercover visits to furniture factories, have demonstrated that although some countries like Indonesia have cracked down on the illegal timber trade, criminal networks have now shifted their attention to looting the vanishing forests of Laos.

Urgent Action

This illicit trade is in direct contraventionof laws in Laos banning the export of logs and sawn timber and EIA/Telapak are calling for urgent international action.

Investigators visited numerous Vietnamese furniture factories and found the majority to be using logs from Laos. In the Vietnamese port of Vinh, they witnessed piles of huge logs from Laos awaiting sale.

At one border crossing on one occasion alone, 45 trucks laden with logs were filmed lining up to cross the Laos border into Vietnam. The report estimates at least 500,000 cubic metres of logs are moved in this way every year.

Plundering

Since the 1990s, Vietnam has taken steps to protect to conserve its remaining forests while at the same time, massively expanding its wooden furniture production.

Vietnam has an unenviable track record in using stolen timber. Past investigations have revealed it laundering illegal timber from both Cambodia and Indonesia

The plundering of Laos’ forests involves high-level corruption and bribery and it is not just Vietnam which is exploiting its neighbour; Thai and Singapore traders are also cashing in.

You are a liar!!!!!!! You are probably a fake Lao. That photo that you show is just the remaining small pieces of Lao forests. It's someone like you who like to dupe Lao people into thinking they should not worry because there are still tons of forested areas left in Laos. The truth is you indirectly participate in the process of destroying Lao forests for the profits of the Viet businessmen and a few Lao officials.

The USA has a strong law against cutting down their forests, otherwise the offenders have to pay high price in jail. Even the Viet have a very strict law against cutting down their own trees, so the Viets come to corrupt Lao officials and cut down Lao trees instead. It's billion-dollars business for the Viets. It's hypocrisy and greed, nothing new.

"NO WOODS, NO FURNITURES, AND OFCOURSE NO BUYING" WHERE IS THE ROOT CAUSE . ALL THE PROBLEMS THAT OCCURE IN LAOS SHOULD BE SOLVE IN LAOS ,NOT ELSWHERE.( STOP BLAMING OTHER ,BLAME OURSELF )

Nice try! if those greedy leeches don't come to sneak around in Laos looking for stupid Lao officials to corrupt with their money because they are not allowed to cut down trees in thier own country, then Lao forests could not have been destroyed.

No, Laos does some correct things and also some wrong things that need to be corrected.

One of their goals for many years has been to stop illegal logging and keep Laos forested and green. They have failed to stop logging again and again because of corruptions. Promise is not kept.

Also, they have promised to replant trees, but after a few attempts they have now acknowledged it harder to replant trees than cut themm down, and they are not going to meet their goal. That's not good.

What make you think that Lao Royal government wouldn't do the same if they're still in power ?

They might do the same or might not but the different is the people would have the right to complain and protest to stop the government from destroy the rain forest .

Very good answer. and what percentages that our country ''LAOS'' use the LAND and Natural resources so far into this day ???

Don't worry about the land and natural resource if they run out so they run out . Saudi Arabia sold their crude oil billion and billions of barrel every years over 100 years , they still don't care. If the Vietnamese chop down all Lao trees and dig out of all the Lao natural resource , Laos still capable survive from foreign aid.

Don't worry look at Japan , Taiwan , Singapore and Austria don't have any natural resource , they still survive , so do Laos . Lao people have never been starved to death and never will be like China 80 years ago or like India or like Africa . Laos was poor yesterday and is poor today and will be poor tomorrow but Lao are never going to starve to death.

What make you think that Lao Royal government wouldn't do the same if they're still in power ?

They might do the same or might not but the different is the people would have the right to complain and protest to stop the government from destroy the rain forest .

Very good answer. and what percentages that our country ''LAOS'' use the LAND and Natural resources so far into this day ???

Don't worry about the land and natural resource if they run out so they run out . Saudi Arabia sold their crude oil billion and billions of barrel every years over 100 years , they still don't care. If the Vietnamese chop down all Lao trees and dig out of all the Lao natural resource , Laos still capable survive from foreign aid.

Don't worry look at Japan , Taiwan , Singapore and Austria don't have any natural resource , they still survive , so do Laos . Lao people have never been starved to death and never will be like China 80 years ago or like India or like Africa . Laos was poor yesterday and is poor today and will be poor tomorrow but Lao are never going to starve to death.

Japan , Taiwan , Singapore and Austria and south Korean people, their leaders are well educated and intelligent and also their people are highly educated and they are not corrupted, as well. What do Lao have in the head, nothing but jealousy, selfish , corruption and betray .

If you're going to chop down trees, then at least plant new ones to take their place.

If US and EU stop buying those illegally chopped down trees, then someone else will buy them instead.

There will always be a buyer. Stop the illegal activity in the first place. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Look at the war on drugs, they don't go after the users, they go after the suppliers, the cartels, the growers.

Get your facking heads out of your azzes.

Plant new trees? That's just an excuse to convince Lao people that it's OK to chop down primary Lao trees for the greedy Viets to sell them to the west for big profits because we can always plant new ones, blah blah blah.

The truth is it's very hard to plant new trees because most of them die. Beside, it's the primary forests that are the most in danger and should be preserved. These forests disappeared from most countries, in particular in Asia. You can not easily replant these trees. It takes decades or centuries to grow to its current level.

Vietnam is acquiring huge quantities of illegally logged timber from neighboring Laos and turning it into furniture for consumers in the United States and Europe, an environmental group said Wednesday.

"Vietnam's booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation" in Laos, Julian Newman of the Britain-based Environmental Investigation Agency said at a news conference.

The group showed a video of fleets of trucks laden with logs crossing the border into Vietnam from Laos, which has banned the export of logs and sawn timber.

Every year, an estimated 17.6 million cubic feet of logs are smuggled across the border after false documents are produced and bribes paid, the group said.

The video included Vietnamese businessmen admitting that logs at their factories came from Laos in violation of the country's laws and were processed into furniture for export.

A huge pile of logs from Laos was shown in the Vietnamese port of Vinh, ready for sale.

Newman said businesses in Thailand are also buying illegally cut timber from Laos, which has some of the last great forests in mainland Southeast Asia.

"The cost of such unfettered greed is borne by poor rural communities in Laos who are dependent on the forests for their traditional livelihoods," Newman said.

Vietnamese and Thai officials were not immediately available for comment. The governments of both countries have in the past acknowledged the illegal trafficking of timber from Laos, although the scope of the trade has not previously been clear.

"The ultimate responsibility for this dire state of affairs rests with the consumer markets which import wood products made from stolen timber," Newman said.

Faith Doherty, another EIA staffer, said draft laws now before the U.S. Congress would curb such imports. She said the European Union was taking steps to certify furniture and other forest products as having come from legally procured timber.

An EIA report also released Wednesday noted that Vietnam has taken steps since the 1990s to conserve its own forests while at the same time expanding wooden furniture production, much of it with illegal timber.

Furniture exports from Vietnam totaled $2.4 billion last year, a tenfold increase since 2000. According to the Vietnamese government, 39 percent of the exports in 2006 went to the United States, 14 percent to Japan, 7 percent to Britain and 4 percent each to France and Germany.

"The plundering of Laos' forests involves high-level corruption and bribery and it is not just Vietnam which is exploiting its neighbor.

Thai and Singapore traders are also cashing in," the report said. Posing as investors, EIA staffers met one Thai businessman who bragged of paying bribes to senior Lao military officials to secure timber potentially worth $500 million, the group said.

Press Release: 19 March 2008

VIETNAM: HOW THE COUNTRY HAS BECOME A HUB FOR THE REGION'S ILLEGAL TIMBER TRADE.

Vietnam is operating as a centre for processing huge quantities of unlawfully-logged timber from across Indochina, threatening some of the last intact forests in the region, a major new report reveals.

Undercover investigations by the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Indonesian NGO Telapak have revealed how Vietnam’s booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation throughout the Mekong river region.

Field investigations in Vietnam and neighbouring Laos, including secret filming and undercover visits to furniture factories, have demonstrated that although some countries like Indonesia have cracked down on the illegal timber trade, criminal networks have now shifted their attention to looting the vanishing forests of Laos.

Urgent Action

This illicit trade is in direct contraventionof laws in Laos banning the export of logs and sawn timber and EIA/Telapak are calling for urgent international action.

Investigators visited numerous Vietnamese furniture factories and found the majority to be using logs from Laos. In the Vietnamese port of Vinh, they witnessed piles of huge logs from Laos awaiting sale.

At one border crossing on one occasion alone, 45 trucks laden with logs were filmed lining up to cross the Laos border into Vietnam. The report estimates at least 500,000 cubic metres of logs are moved in this way every year.

Plundering

Since the 1990s, Vietnam has taken steps to protect to conserve its remaining forests while at the same time, massively expanding its wooden furniture production.

Vietnam has an unenviable track record in using stolen timber. Past investigations have revealed it laundering illegal timber from both Cambodia and Indonesia

The plundering of Laos’ forests involves high-level corruption and bribery and it is not just Vietnam which is exploiting its neighbour; Thai and Singapore traders are also cashing in.